In your opinion, is Health Care a fundamental right?

Rights are not the same as Entitlements. You are either falling into the trap of the "Progressive" word game or using it against them. Under Natural Law, as affirmed by the founders, governments were created by free people to protect their natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Entitlements, by definition, subjugate the liberty and property rights of individuals in order to provide for others. Under natural law, no one is entitled to the services of another person. The 13th amendment ended that practice in the US. Under natural law, every individual is free to use their freedom to accumulate enough property to do whatever they choose with their life provided they do not violate the rights of others. Nothing allows them to use government force to coerce a doctor into giving them care or using another person's property to pay for it. No electorate or group of 536 despots can change these basic truths as they are self evident precepts of the human condition.

Technically speaking, rights encompass everything that the States and citizens did not specifically delegate to the federal government in the constitution. Therefore, those who think health care is a right are correct for the wrong reasons. Individuals retain the right to obtain or not obtain insurance for themselves. Should they choose not to obtain it, they choose to bear the costs of not having it. Modern Statists confuse the word "right" with the word "entitlement." The Constitution does not provide for "entitlements" because providing "entitlements" necessarily infringes on the "rights" of tax payers who retain the "right" to use their private property as they choose.

If one truly believes health care is a right that each of us retains, it is impossible to intellectually justify putting the federal government in charge of administering a program that provides, denies, or pays for care. If one believes that every citizen is entitled to health insurance, they do not respect individual rights to life, freedom, and property under Natural Law as endorsed by the Founders. No one is "entitled" to violate the rights of another citizen. If you believe someone else's hard earned money should be confiscated under threat of force by the government, you do not understand the basis on which the US was founded. When the private sector commits such crimes, they are punished, when the public sector commits the same crimes, it is called an entitlement program.

Unfortunately, the school system in the US has produced so many intellectual dwarfs convinced that the government is the source of their own freedom, that the actual logic and philosophy related to the founding of this country has been lost on the last 2 generations. These poor excuses for citizens believe that the government was nice enough to give the citizens the rights specifically outlined the the first 8 amendments, amendments 9 & 10 have no meaning whatsoever, and that the government can determine the scope of its own authority in all other matters.

I do not believe it is a right, but I also do not believe the majority of the population should be priced out and not have access to it either. The system we have, unless the republicans get rid of it, will assure that everyone has health insurance and therefore mostly affordable options within their plan. There still will be things they can not get either because they are experimental and therefore excluded under most health plans or just too expensive, even with insurance. Healthcare is not a right like freedom of speech or religion. You can not make any product or service a right. At least I can't think of anything that would fit into that.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding as to what "rights" are, and it certainly does no help to place adjectives like "fundamental" in front of an incorrect, yet common, usage.

Natural rights are part of Natural RIGHTS and WRONGS, and by "Natural" we mean according to how the Creator established and maintains His universe and Man's duties within it. The terminology "RIGHTS and WRONGS" is from Blackstone's Commentaries on Law, and that is one of the basis documents for our American law.

The most fundamental of Rights are the Rights to Life and Liberty.

Life! Health Care is not a right, nor a fundamental right -- but the Right to Life includes the right and duty of a person and of a civil society to do those things necessary to keep people alive. Clearly a person has the right to pursue those lawful actions which will keep or restore his and his loved ones health.

Liberty! We must also consider Liberty, for it is usually a WRONG to force someone to provide their services, wealth, time or goods to provide for any one else's health care. At least we want to impair Liberty in the least amount that may be done. Civil society does act reasonably and RIGHTfully in enacting taxes and public agencies to provide water and sewer, both of which are vital to health.

Clearly there is a balance. G-d did not mean for this to be easy! It is difficult to balance the scales between doing what must be done for the common good -- caring for the indigent, the orphaned, the widowed, the elderly, providing public health services in the case of epidemics and disasters, providing public water and sewer, and other related public health services such as community hospitals, roads and such.

Government is wrong when it prevents the free market to work well, for free and honest markets are far more potent than any even the most well-meaning civic officials, and the usual case is that civil officials devolve into a mix of mostly common drab bureaucrats in the sway of a few venal corrupt officials and politicians. A mix which is sadly lacking in looking out for the health of even the most well-connected.

As the tragic case of Debbie Hirst showed -- government care is tyrannically deadly with no recourse. The private market ALWAYS gives people a choice, a recourse from bad bureaucracy whether that bureaucracy is a big insurance company or an all-powerful government.

Health is a right of a person, part of the right of to Life but that does not mean others can be forced to provide for it. Thus it is best to call "Health Care" not a right, given today's misunderstanding of what "right" means, which has come to mean an entitlement, as if a person demanding a cure to sickness may make a Doctor a slave for the purpose of curing him.

Thus Health Care is not a right in that modern sense.

I don't believe health care is a fundamental right.

Neither do I believe the government should be enforcing their health care plan on we the people especially with a fine accompanying those who would otherwise opt out.

I do agree since the government insists on playing Hitler (and rest assured the government will eventually use this health care bill to make experimental and life or death decisions then they should be held to the same standards.

Anyone who says Health Care is a right is either an idiot or they are trying to sell you something like say a turd of a Health Care bill.

A right is something you can exercise yourself.

Health care must be provided by someone else.

If Health Care were a right this would make health care providers slaves.

Health Care is a critical service, but it is a service.

If the electorate think so, then yes.

It surprises me that so many Americans seem not to be aware about Obama’s healthcare plans [a]. During the election, he campaigned for these changes stating that he felt it was unfair to have a system where insurance companies try to escape paying claims and was elected to bring in changes [b].

First of all, too many people do not know that Obama wants to make insurance more available to all. His system is similar to that which works in Holland, Taiwan [c] and Switzerland. It works there and private healthcare companies provide most the insurance to the people there.

FACT - the USA spends more on healthcare PER PERSON than any other nation on the planet [d].

FACT – insurance companies admit that they push up costs, buy politicians and do not pay out for many claims when they should [e].

FACT - the US has higher death rates for kids aged under five than western European countries with universal health coverage [f].

That means that a dead American four year old would have had a better chance of life if they were born in Canada, France, the Netherlands, Cuba, Switzerland, Germany, Japan etc, all of which have universal health coverage. And no western European nation with universal healthcare has moved away from it. And the sad thing is, that the insurance companies have spent loads of money to fight these reforms [g] and loads of politicians are taking the thirty pieces of silver from them to fight the reforms, rather than fight for the health of the American people.

Remember, I back my facts up with evidence. Those who say they are wrong tend not to. If they are wrong, e-mail me with proof and let me know.

At most, it can be said that people have a right to access it, and should not be denied, but they should not have a right to be exempt from responsibility for providing for their own care including the costs. It is impossible to have a policy where health care is provided free of charge, it is unsustainable.

I do not believe we have any rights other than outlined in the Constitution , I do not see health care there, however that being said, if we are forced to pay for health care insurance then so should those who enacted this legislation and the same kind we have not something better!

you have no " right" to anything, so the question is moot.

Absolutely, unequivocally and with out a doubt, NO!

It's a shame and a scam as to why people think that it is and should be.